Desperate Housewives Of Africa Coming To DSTV

Nigeria's EbonyLife TV and Disney Media Distribution EMEA have co-produce a new series called Desperate Housewives Africa. The show is Africa's version of the hugely popular American series which ended in 2012 but has been adapted in different languages all over the world. 

EbonyLife TV's CEO Mo Abudu says the series will have "an African soul" featuring a cast of new and established pan-African talent that will showcase fashion by Nigerian dress designers.

In a joint statement Monday, Abudu said the African version of the popular series will be filmed on location in a gated community of the upscale Lekki suburb in Lagos, Nigeria's bustling economic hub.

Disney EMEA general manager Giovanni Mastrangelo said it offers "the opportunity to engage African audiences through locally relevant and entertaining storytelling."

Other versions of Desperate Housewives have been produced in Turkey, Argentina, Brazil and the United States in Spanish.

Based in Cross River State, Nigeria, EbonyLife TV is marketed as Africa’s first global black multi-broadcast entertainment network and is dedicated to pan- African content. 

“What we are basically doing is taking that format and localising it,” Abudu said. 

“I was recently interviewed on BBC Radio and they asked me, ‘why Desperate Housewives Africa? This is an American concept.’ And I said, ‘why not? Do you not think that Africans have the same aspirations, the same obsessions and the same passions?’ It’s important to start taking these formats because there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. This is one of the most successful, top-selling, award-winning series ever produced – let’s take it and make it our own.”

The deal with Disney was finally concluded near the end of 2013 and the announcement was made with much fanfare at MIPCOM in October. 

In November, EbonyLife TV put out a call for head writers, series writers and script editors to get moving on generating storylines for the series. 

In January, auditions were held. 

“This is where EbonyLife wants to play – in the format business,” she said. 

The channel’s aims with regard to these formats is both to create original, homegrown adaptations of internationally tried and tested formats, like Desperate Housewives, as well as to generate brand new entertainment concepts that have the ability to be exported, not only to the rest of Africa but also to the world.

EbonyLifeTV is available on the DSTV platform in South Africa on  Channel 165.